Quantum Brilliance – the company revolutionising quantum computing by using synthetic diamonds to create smaller, room-temperature, quantum computers – are graduating from the CEAT Hub.
Quantum Brilliance was founded in 2019 and joined the Hub in August 2020. Over the past two years they have become an ANU and ACT innovation success story, raising millions of dollars in seed and project funding, and rapidly expanding operations. From humble beginnings at CEAT Hub with just a few offices and a handful of staff, they now have offices in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as an international headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany and employ nearly 100 staff.
In the past year they have received funding, along with their international partners, for projects worth USD $40 million, and have deployed the world’s first room-temperature, diamond-based quantum computer at Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth, using componentry built in Canberra.
Notable awards received during that time include founders Andrew Horsley and Marcus Doherty being named in Australian Business Review’s Top 100 Innovators list for 2021; and being award the Falling Walls Venture for Promising Science Start-ups, a global award, also in 2021.
Quantum Brilliance’s work has a range of applications in the agri-sector. This includes increasing our ability to ‘replicate’ the natural world through highly complex models of relevance to agriculture, such as photosynthesis, energy systems, weather, climate modelling and climate forecasting. Quantum computing also has the potential to power and improve the capacity for remote sensing and high-speed imaging from space; acquiring long range high resolution, 3D images; and increased connectivity in agriculture. Collectively, such applications would bring a host of benefits to the agri-sector, particularly to farms and communities in remote areas.
It has been amazing to have been part of, and witness to, the Quantum Brilliance journey to date, and CEAT would like to wish them all the best as they continue their journey at their new ANU home in the Research School of Physics. We hope to continue to explore further opportunities to engage as they make further impacts in the world of quantum computing.